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Stuart Perkoff
, 1998. Courtesy Amazon.com.]] Stuart Z. Perkoff (July 29, 1930 - June 14, 1974)) was an American poet, a central figure in the West coast Beat poetry movement.Perkoff, Stuart Z. (1930-1974), Encyclopedia.com. Web, Apr. 16, 2018. Life Overview Pat Hartman wrote of him: :Biographically, Perkoff was the quintessential (one might even say the stereotypical) Beatnik: a feckless, usually broke substance-user with benign intentions who nevertheless couldn’t fulfill responsibilities to much of anything other than his art; who served years in prison, got out at age 40, and didn’t even make it to 44.Pat Hartman, "Venice in a Time of Love: An appreciation of Stuart Perkoff, Virtual Venice. Web, Apr. 16, 2018. Youth Perkoff was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Ann and Nate Perkoff. The son of a bookmaker, he lived an itinerant life starting in his late teens, living in New York and then California, where he eventually settled in Venice West, Los Angeles. Adult life He married Susan Blachard in 1949. A decade later their marriage was over, and he married Jana Baragan "on a finger of stone jutting into the sea." He also had affairs with Susan Berman (who had a child by him) and poet Philomene Long. He published his debut poetry collection, The Suicide Room, in 1956. Over the next decade he gained literary recognition, being featured in Lawrence Lipton's 1959 novel The Holy Barbarians, and having his own work appear in the seminal anthology, The New American Poetry, 1945-1960. During the same period, though, he became addicted to narcotics. He was arrested and convicted of a drug offense in 1968, and was imprisoned until 1971. He worked in San Francisco as a bookseller from 1971 to 1973, and then returned to Venice, where he died of cancer the following year. Publications Poetry *''The Suicide Room''. Karlsruhe: Jonathan Williams, 1956. *''Poems from Prison''. Denver, CO: Bowery Press, 1969. *''Eat the Earth''. Denver, CO: Black Ace / Bowery, 1971. *''We Carry Our Crises within Our Heads''. Denver, CO: Croupier Press, 1971? *''Song for Max Finstein''. San Francisco: Cranium Press, 1973. *''Kowboy Pomes''. Golden, CO: Croupier Press, 1973. *''The Moonwash Sea''. Denver, CO: Black Ace / Croupier, 1973. *''Alphabet''. Los Angeles, CA: Red Hill, 1973. *''Love Is the Silence: Poems, 1948-1974'' (edited by Paul Vangelisti). Los Angeles, CA: Red Hill, 1975. *''Visions for the Tribe''. Denver, CO: Black Ace / Temple of Man, 1976. *''How It Is Doing What I Do: Poems and drawings''. Denver, CO: Black Ace / Temple of Man, 1977. *''Voices of the Lady: Collected poems''. Orono, ME: National Poetry Foundation, 1998.'' Anthologized *''The New American Poetry, 1945-1960'' (edited by Donald M. Allen). New York: Grove, 1960. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1999. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Stuart Perkoff, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Apr. 16, 2018. See also *Beat poets *List of U.S. poets References Notes External Links ;Books *Stuart Z. Perkoff at Amazon.com ;About *Perkoff, Stuart Z. (1930-1974) at Encyclopedia.com *Stuart Z. Perkoff at Virtual Venice Category:20th-century poets Category:American poets Category:Beat Generation poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets Category:People from St. Louis, Missouri Category:Poets imprisoned